Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/293070
April 2014 | Overdrive | 29 T ruckers Against Traffick- ing can count among its supporters all the major trucking associations, not to mention many of the country's largest fleets, along with other industry partners, including Ryder and, as a high-level sponsor, Bridgestone. J.B. Hunt is starting to train drivers on how to spot human trafficking on the roads and at truck stops, says TAT Executive Director Kendis Paris. "C.R. England's on board," Paris adds, "Werner, Knight," and many other fleets, too. "We love to see any- body using their influence to get the message out there." That's where owner-operator Matt Hopkins comes in. With his "From Miles to Mountains" initiative, he transformed what would have been nothing more than a quest to climb one of the Seven Summits (the tallest peaks on every con- tinent) into a benefit effort for TAT. By the time Hopkins boarded a plane in Bozeman, Mont., in late January, bound for connectors that would land him in Santiago, Chile, months of planning had transformed his personal pledge. "I never really knew what human trafficking was," says Hopkins. "You first hear about it through movies, and you just think, that's a big deal, but it's all overseas." More and more, however, Hopkins "kept hearing about it, and that it's a problem here." The domestic human trafficking TAT urges drivers to target is that which pri- marily results in forced prostitution. "We are just trying to get drivers to look for two things," says TAT Adminis- trator Laura Cyrus: • "Evidence of pimp control" of pros- titutes working lots and other locations across the nation, which may come in the form of a "car or SUV and five to six women or girls getting out to start working the lot." • "Anyone under the age of 18" doing so. "Either of those, call the hotline," Cyrus says. Tips made through the TAT hotline – 888-373-7888 – are funneled to national and/or local law enforcement for follow-up. "If you have any inkling, just call." Calls to the hotline have ballooned since TAT's first training video in 2011. That's when it went full bore with outreach to the trucking industry on traf- ficking, releasing its first training video documentary and doing outreach at big industry events and elsewhere. Previous- ly, the organization operated as a division of Chapter 71 Ministries, says Paris, but became its own unaffiliated nonprofit the year Paris became its first executive director in 2011. Owner-operator Hopkins first heard about the organization on trucking satellite radio in 2012. About the same time, he had a friend who used a long bicycle trek as a way to benefit The Girl Effect (thegirleffect.org), a non- profit devoted to helping vulnerable adolescent girls in Africa and elsewhere rise out of poverty. Hopkins thought, "If I ever get a chance to do something big … I should be able to do something bigger than myself." Otherwise, "you're taking a 53-foot trailer across the country, and it's Truckers Against Trafficking, founded to mobilize truckers against child abduction and forced prostitution, is gaining more support among fleets and individuals. One hauler, Matt Hopkins, took his support to new heights. By TODD DILLS Twin challenges 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Calls from trucking industry into the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Truckers Against Trafficking's hotline had received almost 800 calls by February, said TAT's Kylla Leeburg. Other markers of growth include a new website launched in February and a newly released educational video. For more information about TAT's impact, see the "About Us" page at TruckersAgainstTrafficking.org. On Twitter, follow @TATKylla, and search "Truckers Against Trafficking" on Facebook to stay abreast of the organization's efforts. TAT_CoverStory_0414.indd 29 4/1/14 2:19 PM